Published 16 December 2024 at 12.10
Media. Sveriges Radio is acquitted by the Review Board after a controversial incident in the program Söndag in P4. According to it, it was perfectly correct to throw a journalist out of the studio when he started talking about buying sex. The comment violated the “democracy provision” of “everyone's equal value”.
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It was in October that DN journalist Henrik Brandão Jönsson took part in a panel discussion and urged a listener to solve his boring sex life by hiring a prostitute in Denmark.
The statement prompted host Farah Abadi to intervene immediately. Abadi, who was clearly upset, interrupted the discussion and started shouting and then threw Jönsson out of the studio live.
The incident led to harsh criticism and to a report against SR to the Review Board, which now acquits the public service company .
In its decision, the Review Board writes that Farah Abadi's reaction was correct and refers to the so-called democracy provision.
“Program activities as a whole must be characterized by the the basic ideas of the democratic state and the principle of the equal value of all people and the freedom and dignity of the individual. The provision in itself is not a basis for assessment in the assessment of individual programs anti-democratic statements,” the committee writes in a press release.
The incident has sparked debate about both freedom of expression and SR's role as public service actor. Critics believe that the incident shows an increasing intolerance towards dissent in the public. At the same time, Farah Abadi has received support from the left for his actions.